Where's My Money?

Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security

By: Bob Carlson

Narrated by: Chris Lutkin

Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

About 10,000 baby boomers turn age 65 every single day in America. They face a series of complicated and difficult decisions about what they should do with their Social Security retirement benefits. Choose rashly, and they risk running out of money in the middle of retirement, but if they wait to decide until their 65th birthday, they may have already made some costly and irreversible mistakes.

Retirement-finance expert Bob Carlson, editor of the website Retirement Watch and chairman of the board of trustees of the Fairfax County Employees’ Retirement System, has created a concise guide to help them. This essential handbook explains how our current Social Security rules work, describes how to choose the optimum timing and form of payments, provides alternative strategies for claiming benefits, explains the many choices and decisions that married couples must make (including couples turning 65 in different years), and encourages baby boomers to review their options ahead of retirement so that they are fully prepared when it’s time.

For anyone approaching retirement, Where's My Money? is a must-hear guide to ensure you maximize your income, reduce your tax burden, protect your loved ones, avoid costly mistakes, and enjoy the retirement you have always dreamed of.

©2020 Bob Carlson (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

A lot of excellent information

A very good book for people who want to plan to get the most out of their SS benefits. If nothing else you will learn one thing: Do not claim early! Hold off as long as you can! This is repeated many, many times. There are examples for almost every scenario imaginable. Some very basic, others somewhat complex. The only drawback is the narration which sounds almost mechanical and stilted. Some of the words are mispronounced, especially the word "caveat". Because of this performance and the sometimes complex and dense material, I zoned out when you really need to concentrate on what is being said. While there is a lot of good information in the book, it can get overlooked because there is a pedantic tone to the writing and the author really hits you over the head with some concepts. Having said that, this is a very good reference and instructional book for those on the glide path to retirement. Younger people should read it as well so they can prepare as early as possible and understand what they will be entitled to and how to stay on the right path for the best benefits.

Save Your Time and Money

Let me save you time and money. The book's main theme is 1) delay taking social security until age 70 if you can 2) coordinate social security with your spouse.

The author repeats this theme over and over again. The less wealth a person has, the more important it is to delay social security payments. The author recommends using your nest egg to delay taking social security because social security payments are "guaranteed" and indexed for inflation. For each year you delay taking social security, you get an @8% increase.

The author does get into many specifics and details in the book, so if you want to learn a lot about the program, the audiobook is informative and the author is knowledgeable in the topic.